In the current immigration process, the provisions concerning consultants begin to apply as soon as an official application has been submitted to the minister. Under the proposed amendment to the legislation, our department would begin looking into the communication between applicants and consultants even before an official application is submitted to the federal government. This implies that, at any time during the immigration process, any contact with a consultant would be covered by the bill's provisions.
On November 1st, 2010. See this statement in context.